Apocalypse: The Best Stable To Never Happen?

[Tenta]

Now, some will say that this is supposed to be the "Generation X Horsemen". I've heard either name tossed about regarding this stable, and granted, it's extremely speculatory, so let's get that out of the way. There's no way to diagnose whether this was legitimately intended to occur, but I suppose there's enough reason to believe in it.

Anyway, in the Summer of 1996, the hottest name in the world had to be Brian Pillman. He manged to become a phenomenom in wrestling, both backstage with the boys and in the IWC, without even having to wrestle that many matches. Now, he did so by working everyone left and right, and admittedly, I feel there are people that have performed works better than Pillman. Still, there's no doubting that Pillman had a huge following in professional wrestling. He was so damn unpredictable, absolutely no one knew where he was coming from. Even more, he convinced Eric Bischoff to give him a legitimate release of his contract, so that he could appear on ECW, which led more to the belief that he could be anywhere, anytime.

Except, when Bischoff let him go, there was an implied agreement that Pillman would come back to WCW, as the leader of his own group of Horsemen, known either as "Generation X Horsemen", or more to the point, "Apocalypse". This group was to include Brian Pillman, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and the newly debuting Chris Jericho. They were set to have a duel to the death with the Four Horsemen, and admittedly, this had to be tantalizing to the smarkiest of smarks. Think, you had the best wrestler in the world, Chris Benoit, led by the hottest thing in wrestling, Brian Pillman. Coupled that with the best workers who needed pushes, Guerrero and Jericho, and you have the makings of a legendary group.

Of course, it never happened... But what if it did? What if Pillman did resign with WCW, and they did create this group?

Yes, I'm well aware that the nWo already was in the picture, but first hear me out. Perhaps, in having another heel group on the roster, Bischoff wouldn't feel the need to put so much emphasis on adding nWo members every three days. Perhaps, in seeing another heel group, and devoting time to them, he'd place less people in the nWo, and just keep the two stables as they were. Of course, they'd also have to mutually exclusive, in that they don't interact with one another.

So, what keeps Bischoff from ignoring these names, like he did before? Well, Brian Pillman, really. Bisch may have had issues with the "vanilla midgets", but Pillman was anything but vanilla. Pillman had Bisch's ear, for some reason, and I really do feel that the work of the other names wouldn't be ignored if they had Pillman leading the way. He was such a hot commodity, even Hogan wanted to work against him. I feel there's legitimate reason to believe this stable could have made money, and could have kept all of the above mentioned in WCW.

So, what's your opinion... Could the Apocalypse stable work? Would they have been over in WCW? And could they have kept WCW around a little longer?

 

[Deexter Jorgan]

I'm going out on a limb here and say no it wouldn't have worked, Pillman worked Bisch into letting him go but if he really had Erics ear wouldnt he had a say in the Hollywood blondes actually getting a push?

They where the most over team in WCW at the time and Pillman even managed to pull a working feud against the Horsemen, but where was Pillmans WCW title match?, where was any runs with any big singles titles in the promotion?.

The fact is that the only people in Bisch's ear where Hall, Nash and Hogan, no one was safe from being squashed, they had the best midcard talent in the world and because of the NWO WCW couldn't elevate any of them to a point where the cruiserweights werent given the credit they deserved and most of the time just left to their own devices in terms of matches.

Apocalypse would never had worked because Bisch would never have given a bunch of Cruiserweight guys the time of day no matter who they where with and its a damn shame because i believe Pillman could have worked anyone into thinking that he was championship material, hell he made his own tag partner believe that he was nuts.

 

[Tenta]

I'm going out on a limb here and say no it wouldn't have worked, Pillman worked Bisch into letting him go but if he really had Erics ear wouldnt he had a say in the Hollywood blondes actually getting a push?

Pillman wasn't nearly the star he was then. You have to remember, talking about the Blondes Pillman and The Loose Cannon was almost like talking about two different personalities.

They where the most over team in WCW at the time and Pillman even managed to pull a working feud against the Horsemen, but where was Pillmans WCW title match?, where was any runs with any big singles titles in the promotion?.

Again, consider that this is now a Loose Cannon version of Pillman. Part of Bischoff's complaint againt the cruiserweights was that none of them could cut promos. This was a man who had proven to be able to cut a promo, and be able to get massive heat. Again, comparing the Blondes version of Pillman to The Loose Cannon doesn't do the Cannon's justice in just how much he had grown as a character.

The fact is that the only people in Bisch's ear where Hall, Nash and Hogan, no one was safe from being squashed, they had the best midcard talent in the world and because of the NWO WCW couldn't elevate any of them to a point where the cruiserweights werent given the credit they deserved and most of the time just left to their own devices in terms of matches.

Pillman worked Bischoff, though. He worked him into allowing him to out Sullivan as the booker on PPV. He worked him into continuing to be on WCW programming, though there was no contract to speak of. Pillman worked on the fact that Bisch had no credibility with the boys, and you don't mean to tell me he couldn't do that again?

I get what you're getting at with Hogan and Co. But again, Hogan allegedly also wanted a match with Pillman for the heat. Hall and Nash were shit stirrers in WCW. I think more than anything, they'd be impressed someone has the sense to work everyone like Pillman.

Apocalypse would never had worked because Bisch would never have given a bunch of Cruiserweight guys the time of day no matter who they where with and its a damn shame because i believe Pillman could have worked anyone into thinking that he was championship material, hell he made his own tag partner believe that he was nuts.

Again, I feel Pillman was going to get that main event shove, fuck push, if he resigned with WCW. Alas, it just didn't happen.

 

[marklouis]

It definitely could've worked, because the talent was there. And I absolutely believe they would've gotten over. They all became stars at some point in their careers, so if they'd been given an opportunity to work together, it would've worked. Unfortunately, the endgame is easy to see: Apocalypse gets too popular, & the NWO guys talk Bischoff into squashing them because they are threatened. I loved the NWO, but let's face it, they did that to everyone they perceived as a threat. Once that happened, Jericho, Benoit, & Guerrero would've made the jump to WWE and probably had their careers play out the way they ultimately did. But I'm sure Apocalypse would've been damn fun to watch.

 

[The Prod1gy]

Looking at the stars involved in the stable you would have to think it would have been a success. But as someone else mentioned, the NWO was in total control of WCW and people were joining all the time.

So, on paper it looks like it would be a success with Benoit, Guerrero, Pillman, Jericho but in reality it would of being a failure. The NWO was just to powerful at the time and the stable would have being like the World Elite, but the Main Event Mafia would be the NWO, they would try to make peace it wouldn't work out and Generation X Horseman would of faded to mediocrity.

 

[The Scarred One]

The idea would've worked in theory, but never would've lasted as long as the likes of Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash ran unchecked in WCW. As previously stated, if the Acopalypse stable got too popular, Eric Bischoff and the NWO guys would've done what they could to cool their jets.

Same thing happened with Goldberg. At one point, he was WCW's showstopper. He was like a freight train barrelling down the tracks. But after Kevin Nash beat him for the WCW Championship, the Fingerpoke of Doom and the beatdown he got from the NWO Elite, Goldberg became just another guy in the company. He never again seemed like the juggernaut that he was when he first debuted.

But I will say this: I do think a concept like this could work today. From what I understand, Apocalypse was to be a hipper and younger version of the Four Horsemen, but not necessarily a carbon copy of them. Of course, it wouldn't work with the same members today as 3/4's of them are dead. But perhaps they could find strong parallels within today's crop of young superstars.

For example, CM Punk could be the Pillman of the group as he is a great talker and could work the crowd into a frenzy. Bryan Danielson could be Benoit as the OP said Benoit was the best wrestler in the world back then and Danielson is pretty much that now. At the same time, John Morrison and the Miz could fill the Guerrero and Jericho as they are two of WWE's best workers.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

There are so many angles and storylines that were waiting to explode and take WCW to the next level but two words , TWO WORDS put a screeching halt to everything: VANILLA MIDGETS!

Let's get this outta the way F*** Hogan, F*** Nash and F*** Hall. These 3 ingrates in their oh-so wise ways held down almost every superstar who wasn't over 6 feet, saying "these guys aren't big enough for TV brother".

This Apocalypse angle you speak of would've been huge. I confess I wasn't completely into the WCW product back in the day, was a WWF guy through and through, but I have seen Loose Cannon's promos, he was brilliant on the mic. No doubt, this stable would've gotten over, hell they wouldn't have even needed creative. Jericho and Pillman could've done all the talking, Malenko and Benoit could've done all the ass-whoopin'.

The fact is backstage politics would've killed the angle before it would have even taken off. I mean they buried Flair every time they'd do a show in North Carolina, they buried the Horsemen when the whole crowd was chanting for them and more absurd booking examples that I could fill this forum with.
Bottom line, the angle would've worked and gone over huge, if Hogan would've had a heart attack and gone away for a year, if Nash had torn his quad getting the morning paper and just plain gone away and if Hall, well Hall was nothing without these two guys, AlcoHall could stay.

And hey Scarred One, you had me going with the 'let's do Apocalypse today', until you said Miz is one the best workers??
Punk is the mouthpiece and let someone big (every group needs an enforcer) like Big Zeke take Miz's place, then we're talking.

 

[jmt225]

In absolutely no way would this stable have worked. Why? Simple: This is WCW we're talking about here.

There is absolutely no chance in hell would Hogan ever had let a Brian Pillman led stable challenge the nWo. No chance. No matter how over this stable would have become (and I believe it would have been hugely over, for the record), they would have been buried by the nWo, or by Goldberg or DDP.

Just look at The Flock. They were over like a MOTHERFUCKER and they couldn't get anywhere near the top of the card. Raven was easily the most hated heel in WCW besides Hogan in 1997. That's no debate, but yet we never saw him get close to the main event scene. Hogan held him down, just like Hogan would have held down Pillman and his new core of guys.

So, yeah... while I'm sure this stable would have been great and gotten hugely over, in the grand scheme of things it would have just ended up being yet another thing WCW fucked up on by letting their over-the-hill WWF rejects bury them. There's no doubt in my mind about that.

You could make the argument that Pillman would have been too ballsy to let something he led get handled like that, but meh... I'm not sure if I'd buy that. Pillman was definitely the type of guy who on any given night could explode and fuck with your entire show (at least, that's what we've been led to believe), but honestly... even if that is the case, then Pillman just ends up getting sent home and the stable breaks up. And again... the whole thing just ends up as one of the countless examples as to why WCW was ran by a bunch of cowardly buffoons.